Domino’s Strikes Another Pose

Sensing weakness, Domino’s Pizza is pressing the attack. Following up on the brilliant and commercially lucrative reinvention of its bottom-of-the-barrel garbage pizza as middle-of-the-barrel tolerable pizza, Domino’s is running an ad campaign promising to end food styling in the service of promoting its product.

A Web featurette (condensed from three minutes to 30 seconds for TV) explores the tricks and tools of food styling: lighting, syringes, blowtorches, anal retentive food groomers, professional hand model pizza slice lifters, and so forth. By contrast: A reasonably chef-y looking Domino’s employee who promises to do away with all the Hollywood magic and just show you the pizza that actually comes out of the oven. And there’s a related contest wherein you can send in your own pizza photos in hopes of winning a whole 500 bucks.

Of course it’s worth keeping in mind that this earnest paean to coming clean and peeling away the glitz of marketing is itself a spotlessly slick and effective marketing campaign dedicated to making you buy pizza and increase Domino’s market share.

That said: A seductively simple message, overall: “Our fast food pizza is good enough to show as is. The competition? Eh, not so much.”
Image source: CHOW.com